Dress Up Party

We had a leaving party at nursery for the four year olds who are going to school or not staying at nursery. Laura and Amy, the grown ups, had made presents for us children and Mummy keeps telling me the hats are called mortar boards. My ribbon kept tickling my nose whilst I sat waiting for my name. Amy read a poem to us because Laura was crying.

The poem was this:

Graduation

A celebration...

A time for looking back on lessons leaned, adventures shared, bright moments filled with special meaning.

A farewell...

A time for saying goodbye to old friends, to good times you've known...a time for packing away memories, treasures for tomorrow.

A beginning...

A time for looking forward, a time to set new goals, to dream new dreams, to try your wings and see what lies beyond.

We had a presentation and shook hands with Amy and Laura when they called our names. They gave us presentation and bye bye stuff including a photograph of me and a certificate and a scroll. There was a lady taking photographs of us and she said I was good at standing where I was supposed to so she asked everyone to stand next to me.

We said three, two, one and threw our hats in the air all the way to the sky to land on the witches house and they were never seen again.

Laura is also leaving nursery so we hugged her as tight as possible for the lady to take a photograph. We also squished Asha because she was the smallest. And it was Joe's birthday and he was telling us about his new trampoline that his Mummy used.

The next day at nursery was Laura's leaving party and it was a fancy dress up party. I was a devil with horns and a cape. Laura was a princess, her dress was like Cinderella's at the ball. Will was batman, Arthur was Robin Hood, Mavi was a knight with a sword and a shield and his costume was armour and a helmet which came on and off. The grown ups dressed up too. Chloe and Sam were fairies with wings on their backs and Amy was a cat and Tegan was a pirate and Frankie and Gemma were cowgirls and Frankie had a pretend pink gun in a pink holster. The grown ups went into Coventry for the evening in fancy dress up and Laura was going as Super Girl.

I went to Joe's birthday party at the Stratford Armouries. They had scary papier mache animals and creatures that the man makes using bottles and egg boxes and things and I thought they were real and was quite scared.

When I arrived I dressed up as a warrior princess and I tried on a helmet and wore it for a long time but I didn't keep the visor down because I couldn't see. Callum had one that looked like a lion. There was a story teller and he told us the tale of King Urur and his son Prince Yo. The story included flowers (and we had to make a flower face), trees (and we had to put our arms up like trees) and a fountain (and we made fountain sounds).

The dragon king (we had to flap our wings and then do a fierce dragon face) stole Prince Yo and we fought the dragon king's soldiers and threw our weapons at them and then threw food and clothes. We took our boots and wellies off and even trousers. Callum shouted out that we should throw pants too and so we had a spell which was "Callum's pants, Smelly pants, Woohoo (with crossed arms) and this turned the dragon king's soldiers into statues so we could continue our journey.

There was a statue of an Indian elephant with real armour on and the armour had spikes on the knees. There was a house on the elephant's back with people in and weapons and stabbing swords. In the story the elephant was the elephant god and it took us to visit the pig wizard. The pig wizard was a metal pig mask that in olden days (before Grandpa's Grandpa was born) in Germany if you did anything bad like punch someone, do something against the law in the days or wave a fork around you had to wear the mask for a month (typists note, I remember it being worn for a day but Bethany is telling the tale) and all your friends would laugh at you as punishment. Joe was the pig wizard voice and he was being all shy and quiet so the elephant god translated his finger sucking into a language. The dragon king was actually armour for a horse with smoke pellets in the nostrils to make it look as if the horse was really fierce and breathed fire. King Urur gave him a garden and they played together and it was a happy end to the story.

Then we went to play and giggle and laugh. There was a bumpy fast slide and we went wee bump, wee bump, wee bump and then thrown off at the end with a soft bump. I went on the slide 92 times or perhaps I should say at least 11 times. There was an air blowing machine and I stood on it to see if it would lift me up like it lifted balloons and balls but it just blew my skirt up. The balloons went up up up and then you had to stand on the blower to catch them and they would suddenly go on the ground. I tried to hug my balloon so tightly it popped. Joe had a castle cake with knights all over it. It was a proper castle and the cake was made by Sam's mummy and it had eggs and jam in it and it tasted good. I don't know what the other ingredients were that made it.

Time for a story "When there was no-one on earth suddenly one person came out really really quietly before the moon went in front of the sun and no-one was there to watch the eclipse but this one person who had lots of legs tied up with all the bodies getting tinier and tinier until the tiniest body would fit in my hand but it started the same size as Daddy. The one at the very front was alive but all of the others were dead. He sneaked around and broke everything up so everything was ruined and then lots of real people came up and all the monks arrived and the first person ran away and all the tied up people came alive and kicked their legs and nearly fell over. The monks were hammering away making the ruins even more ruined. The one who was the big one at the front had nothing on."

There was an ice skating rink at Talisman Square in Kenilworth. I fell over four times and Rhianna fell over twice when she went on a different day. It had been raining so much it bashed on your head but it was dry when Daddy and I went on the rink.

It was just me and Daddy on the rink and Mummy was watching us and taking photographs. I did ballet dancing moves on the ice because there was music to listen to. Daddy was faster at skating them me but I could do more tricks.

I walked like a penguin and skipped, and went in circles. I lifted my legs up. It wasn't actually ice, not real ice, because it is summer. Daddy said it was plastic that we skated on. It was good to have Daddy to support me, especially when I did my twirls.

My skirt and hands got wet when I fell over. I cut my leg a little on the skates when I fell but I was OK. I enjoyed it. We went to The Almanack when we finished ice skating because nearby Costa Coffee was closed so we walked up the road and just missed the big rain downpour. There were baby quails in the incubator of the furniture shop and they had a mop to hide in. They were so tiny because they were only 3 days old and they would have fitted in my hands.

Mummy and Daddy had hot chocolates with marshmallows and my hot milk had marshmallows too and I had a pot of smarties to eat and it rained lots and lots whilst we were inside and warm and dry.

We went to visit Saia at the other Flutterbies nursery to see how she was. She has lots and lots and lots of chickens and is looking much better. Our chickens still look stronger and healthier but Saia looked happy. The bully chickens were locked in a run and Saia had more space to walk around.

Welsh Holiday

We went to the wood to toast marshmallows. I have two marshmallows because I toasted one and Grandpa toasted the other for me. We cooked on the bonfire and had turkey and jacket potatoes and corn on the cob and marshmallows were pudding. I ate lots of marshmallows, one went on fire and I blew it out. When I put freshly cut fir twigs on the fire the oil in the needles goes crack crack like firecrackers or fireworks. I kept finding firecracker twigs because I liked the sound they made.

We have a stormkettle for boiling water and cooking soup and it uses small twigs so I collected lots of sticks and twigs for it and put them in the top when the flames weren't coming out of the top. Once I put a stick in the water by mistake.

When we got to the wood we moved all the stones in the fire circle and hunted for minibeasts. We found a frog which I chased it until it disappeared in the ivy and Mummy told me to leave it alone as it was scared. We found spiders with egg sacs and their nests and lots and lots and lots of baby woodlice and grown up woodlice. There was a slug and a millipede and a worm too.

Mummy and Daddy wanted a new tent for storing tools but I saw this pink one that pops up and you have to be careful so it doesn't hit you on the chin. They bought it for me as an early Christmas present and I also got a wind up torch that repels bugs too all night long with just one wind up which I held in bed with me at night like a cuddly.

We put my tent near to Mummy and Daddy's tent so that I could call them if I needed them at night and didn't have to shout too loud. I could open my tent all by myself. I slept on a campbed that filled up my whole tent even though it should have had two people in. So I could only take Tulip & Lavendar (invisible friends) in with me. I had a sleeping bag liner that I called a Sleeping Pocket and it had a space for a pillow but I put my head under it.

My last night in the wood Mummy woke me in the middle of the night and took me to the cottage where Nanna & Grandpa were staying and put me in bed again. She woke me because Daddy was poorly and had to go the the hospital (Ysbyty in Welsh) as he had appendicitus. The doctors didn't operate they gave him tablets to make him better and Mummy got him from the hospital for me to cuddle.

Whilst Daddy was at the hospital Nanna & Grandpa took me to the Snowdon Railway. The train pushed us up the mountain and pulled us down. It was the same train and the same driver too. It was a busy train and we sat at the front of the green train with red carriages (the colour of strawberries outside). I sat on Nanna's lap all the time.

We were in clouds at the top of Snowdon. On the way down we could see out of the right side but we were in clouds on the left side.

It was cold and wet and I was a little miserable at the summit because of the weather. Nanna and Grandpa took photographs of us at the summit and Nanna had to sit on the steps to take her pictures.

On the way to the wood we went to an archery shop and bought a bow and some arrows and a target for me to use in the wood because Daddy and Mummy won't let me shoot in the garden in case I hit the chickens. Daddy also bought a bow and arrows like mine for him to use as he wanted to shoot in the wood too, he called it field archery but it wasn't in a field as there were cows and sheep in the fields near us.



Daddy showed me how to shoot and talked to me and Mummy said to pretend there was someone behind me that I was trying to elbow so I would keep my elbow up. Grandpa put one of Daddy's arrows on the floor so that I knew where to put my feet because you have to point them away from the target and point your arm to the target. I held the bow tight with my left hand and the string with my first fingers on the right hand and stood up very tall. My first arrows bounced off the target, some wobbled and hung down and two arrows went over the top and Daddy & Grandpa had to hunt for them as they went quite a long way. My final arrows all went in the target and I hit the gold but not the very middle of the gold. I enjoyed archery a gigantic bit and want to do it again. At first I was scared because I thought I would shoot myself but now I know I won't. Mummy and Daddy still won't let me shoot in the garden because the neighbours have rabbits that don't know about archery but I think my chickens would be OK. Daddy says he is going to talk to his archery club so that I can shoot there but I won't shoot as far as Daddy does until my bow is much bigger.

When I stayed at the cottage with Nanna & Grandpa I spent some time on the farm. They didn't have pigs for me to feed but I did stroke and cuddle meg the sheepdog. One of her eyes is pale and bright blue and the other is dark brown. I threw a ball for Meg to chase and I cuddled her lots. She and the other sheepdogs chase our car whenever we leave the farm. Meg is a very, very, very fast runner but I think police dogs are best at chasing cars because police dogs are faster at running.






Kathryn has a trampoline and she lets people bounce on it if they have grown ups (parents) with them. When Daddy came back from the hospital Mummy and Daddy had some food and I wanted to go on the trampoline but had to wait for them to eat. Then they took me to the trampoline and watched me bounce. One of the other sheepdogs came to see what was happening and I got off the trampoline to give her a cuddle like I cuddled Meg but she sanpped at me. I was frightened but Mummy explained that she was trying to tell me she didn't want a cuddle like when my chickens peck at me when they don't want to be carried any more. I like bouncing on a trampoline and can go very high. I did lots and lots and lots of star jumps until it was time for bed.







Nanna gave me holiday pocket money and I told her I wanted to take her out for an ice-cream. I paid for her to have one ice cream and had enough money for one for me. I had a banana icecream covered with marshmallow and a fudge stick too. Nanna just wanted vanilla. Daddy bought icecreams for him and Mummy and Grandpa. We had the icecreams inside the shop because it was raining outside and I wanted to go to the beach for a picnic or fish and chips.

We drove onto the beach at Black Rock Sands and parked the car on the sand. It was so windy that we couldn't throw the frisbee because it kept blowing away and we had to chase it across the sand. Grandpa had bought a beach ball but it rolled so fast that Nanna and I couldn't catch it despite running as fast as we could. Daddy ran even faster and chased the ball into the sea and managed to catch it and carry it back to me and we put it in a bag and in the car to keep it safe. Daddy's trousers were really really wet and Mummy thought it was funny and laughed a lot.

There was so much sand that we had to walk a really long way from the car to find the sea and I wanted to swim to the other side but it was cold so I just paddled with Daddy and splashed him and Mummy.

As we walked along the beach we looked in pools of sea water and at shells and things and we found crabs and worm poo and seagull poo. All the crabs were really little and dead and I could pick them up. I had to be careful where I walked because I had barefeet and there were lots of razor shells.

I left footprints and so did Daddy. Muumy's shoes left prints that looked like crabs.

We saw seaweed in different colours. There were shells that looked really funny and they were sea urchin shells but they broke really easily so we spent a long time looking for whole ones. When we had finished hunting for shells and paddling we went back to the car to find the picnic.

Grandpa said we should picnic on the sand dunes to shelter from the wind but they were slopey so we put blankets down and I sat at the front. There was a cheeky seagull that watched us eating our picnic and Grandpa scared it off but it kept coming back. After the picnic we drove along the beach to the other entrance. I haven't driven on sand before.

It was a good holiday and at the end I went home with Nanna and Grandpa because Daddy was still ill with his appendicitus and Mummy had some pottery parties to do.